Flawk project: Turning a fleet into a hawk

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Maximizing that space! Looking good.

I planned on cutting through my side walls in the front of the floor pack. Installed some eye hooks underneath the horizontal section of my floor pack, and connecting straight to my hooks in the corners of my bed.

I am not sure if you have room for that now. But there are other options.
 
Portercassidy said:
Maximizing that space! Looking good.

I planned on cutting through my side walls in the front of the floor pack. Installed some eye hooks underneath the horizontal section of my floor pack, and connecting straight to my hooks in the corners of my bed.

I am not sure if you have room for that now. But there are other options.
Click to expand...
Hopefully not too tight of a fit backing in! I think it will probably be ok....

I plan on using a similar attachment to the bed as Portercassidy, although I'd like to figure out some other way to attach other than an eyebolt as it seems like the nut and threaded end of the eyebolt took up a lot of space on the interior of the camper. Thinking of something that will be lower profile but haven't quite come up with the perfect solution yet.. There is not a lot of room, but unlike the pictures show, there are a couple inches on each side for a eyebolt or mounting bracket to be attached. Will have to get creative...
 
You should either ditch the plastic bedliner, "way too slippery", or use a rubber bed mat between the camper and the plastic liner. Not sure how practical it would be to anchor the camper through the wings and into the bed stake pockets? I built my Grandby with brackets to use conventional pickup camper tiedowns. The angle brackets on the camper are bolted through the wings and also the aluminum frame which I doubled in that area. I take my camper off the truck for easy access, my wife is handicapped. You can see my mounts and also my electric jacks in the picture.
 

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I also use a laser sight to load my camper. I bought an inexpensive pistol sight and mounted it on a magnet. I place the sight at the center of the bed in the front, then center the laser beam on the center of the tailgate. When backing up to the camper I just keep the laser beam in the center of the camper. It's best if you have a truck length or 2 to get a good straight shot when backing up. Doesn't take much of a twitch of the wheel to get off center. I have about 1 inch on each side of the tailgate opening.
 
Lostwon, Shellback k is right about the plastic bedliner. In fact FWC states that plastic bed liners must be removed prior to FWC installations. I removed mine and had Zebart install a spray-in and then I put a rubber mat in. When it comes to attachment, the eye bolts or outside attachment maybe your only ways. Don't use the truck manufacturers corner tie-downs. They aren't structurally designed to secure the weight of a camper. jd
 
3M 5200 gets put in the same bin as red Lock-tite. Both are considered 'permanent', but that doesn't mean that you're never, ever going to get something assembled with it apart. Heat works for both. Take red Lock-tite above 450° and it comes right loose. 5200 has a service temperature limit of 190°F A heat gun will warm it past that and then it too comes loose. There's too much myth out there about this stuff that just keeps getting perpetuated, when it is purely myth and not reality.
 
shellback said:
You should either ditch the plastic bedliner, "way too slippery", or use a rubber bed mat between the camper and the plastic liner. Not sure how practical it would be to anchor the camper through the wings and into the bed stake pockets? I built my Grandby with brackets to use conventional pickup camper tiedowns. The angle brackets on the camper are bolted through the wings and also the aluminum frame which I doubled in that area. I take my camper off the truck for easy access, my wife is handicapped. You can see my mounts and also my electric jacks in the picture.
Click to expand...
No plastic bed liner here, I have a spray-in liner. Was planning on using the existing bed tie downs but didn't know they weren't structurally sound enough to hold down a camper so thanks for the info! With a little searching, found how FWC recommends and so I will add some eyebolts to the bed. Will do an outside attachment like Shellback's (looks good!) if there isn't enough room for the eyebolts. Would love to have some of those electric jacks too!

I'm wondering if I maximized the space a little too much as there is only about an inch difference between the floor pack and the width of the fenders (about a half inch or so on each side). Maybe it will be ok? I'm not too far yet to take out an inch of width but need some opinions as I've never actually loaded a camper into the back of a truck. Seems as if I were to figure out a laser pointer type of alignment system like Shellback it may not be that big of a deal.

Made some more frame repairs and a coat of primer on the floor pack...

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Anyone have a link to educate me on how to add multiple quality pics to a post?
 
My first FWC was a '84 fleet, soo many memories.

Regarding attaching to truck, have you considered bolting through the floor and truck bed? That was my M O on my old Fleet Model only because that's the way the previous owner mounted it..honestly way back then I didn't know any better! There was no WTW to soundboard off of. We bombed pretty hard back then (no kids and a lust to get to the remote Baja surf spots), it was a great option.. A pain to line up the holes when mounting but certainly doable.

Also, a half an inch clearance per side when mounting is pretty standard for a good fit.. My '05 Tundra and '01 Hawk have about that..

Looking at your frame repair in above post it looks great! However, you do know the frame needs to flex to operate properly correct?guessing the rivet not welded scenario will allow for enough flex..

Ambitious project Amigo! Looking forward to seeing the finish.

TT
 
As I thought about your project more it occurred to me whatever FWC is doing to secure flatbeds campers to flatbed trucks could possibly work for your perfect fit base. Might give them or a dealer a call to see what is going on. I never see any chains and brackets hanging off those flatbed campers, so my guess it is bolted through the floor? Surly a solvable problem.
 
Tomas Tierra said:
My first FWC was a '84 fleet, soo many memories.

Regarding attaching to truck, have you considered bolting through the floor and truck bed? That was my M O on my old Fleet Model only because that's the way the previous owner mounted it..honestly way back then I didn't know any better! There was no WTW to soundboard off of. We bombed pretty hard back then (no kids and a lust to get to the remote Baja surf spots), it was a great option.. A pain to line up the holes when mounting but certainly doable.

Also, a half an inch clearance per side when mounting is pretty standard for a good fit.. My '05 Tundra and '01 Hawk have about that..

Looking at your frame repair in above post it looks great! However, you do know the frame needs to flex to operate properly correct?guessing the rivet not welded scenario will allow for enough flex..

Ambitious project Amigo! Looking forward to seeing the finish.

TT
Click to expand...
For the frame repairs I used 0.060" aluminum which will still allow for some flex.

Bolting straight to the box could work. Will have to see how things like when I finish the rest of new floor pack.
 
Howdy

I have always wanted to get rid of the turnbuckles.

They seem to be used primarily to allow quick mounting of the camper to truck bed.

They work fine but I would like them gone in order to better use the space they occupy.

Regarding fastening the camper down thru the floor of the floor pak.....I have seen an FWC camper mounted that way but had no first hand experience of the owners use.....all depends on how much rough driving you have to your destination.

It is hard to conceptualize the structural integrity of the floorpack...the turnbuckles compress the sidewalls of the floorpak as well as secure the whole mass.

I can't quite imagine how thru bolting the floor only would mimic this...perhaps some vertical L brackets from floor to sides of the floorpak in the area of the thru bolts.

It seems if one does thru bolt the floor it should be as far forward and aft as possible AND very close the side walls of the floorpak.

LOSTWON has the best chance to understand the structure with his camper dis-assembled.
Thanks for sharing and the photos.

David Graves

North Oregon coast
 
Re through bolting through floor.

I ran around with reckless abandon in Baja for ten years through bolted, no problems.. My holes were pre set when I bought the camper, so the holes through the truck were not ideal position wise, but it worked.. To be able to choose the position on the truck would be key as you would be able to go not just go through the bed but possibly the bed frame as well..

TT
 
Hola Tomas

Absolutely ! ....many if not most truck beds have crossways stiffeners under the bed often in concert with the bolts holding the bed to the frame.

This is the best area to thru bolt .

My concern is how much the superstructure where joined to the floor could take before that joint fails....I am pretty sure the side wall to floor joint on our 2012 Hawk shell is only stapled...perhaps with adhesive not sure.

We also go to Baja Sur and even driving slowly there are some jolts, whoops and general turmoil for the truck and passengers.

David Graves
 
What a great project. I'll be watching this. I'm using an Eagle in a Tundra. I have toyed with building a new floor pack that fits the truck bed. It would be nice to have the extra room.

I thought I had read somewhere that originally FWC bolted all the campers through the floor and bed.
 
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